CPI to launch mass campaign on electoral reforms on July 12
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 07 2014: The Manipur unit of CPI is all set to launch a massive campaign on 'electoral reforms' on July 12, which will cover many parts of the State.

Announcing this to the media at Irawat Bhavan here on Monday, secretary of Communist Party of India Manipur State, Dr M Nara said the present Indian electoral system is rather outdated, therefore it requires electoral reforms.

In the last national elections, BJP got only 31 percent of the total vote, but the saffron party won 51 percent of total seats in Lok Sabha seats.

The lower house is made up of 552 members.

Dr Nara was defeated by his nearest rival Thokchom Meinya of the Congress by more than 1 lakh votes to retain the Inner Manipur seat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

Dr Nara informed that the State CPI will launch the campaign on electoral reforms on July 12 to push for proportional representation (PR) and the campaign will cover various parts of the State.

Several social organizations and stakeholders will also take part in the campaign which will be flagged off from Slopeland Public School, Khongjom in Thoubal district, he said.

Referring to the current issue of Ministry reshuffle faced by the State Government, Dr Nara described the issue as tactics of the Congress MLAs aimed at gaining personal benefits.

He said many of the State Congress legislators are now at loggerheads with the Ibobi ministry over the Cabinet reshuffle issue, and added that the public is not going to gain anything eve if the current ministerial team is changed.

Dr Nara alleged that nowadays politicians have turned politics into business and blotted value-based polity.

Referring to the ongoing Union budget session, the CPI leader said he expected a pro-corporate budget this time, not people-friendly budget.

He alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide victory in the recent Lok Sabha polls was a success of the corporate community because they invested crores of rupees in the polls.

The BJP Government at Delhi is expected to use its energy to recoup the costs of the election spent by the corporate giants in the national elections, he alleged.

Dr Nara then pointed out that the nation has witnessed a sudden price hike not long after the NDA Government came to power.

The price of petrol has been increased now and the next step of the new Central Government is to hike the price of LPG, Dr Nara observed, while noting that now the railway fares have also been hiked by the Government.

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